THE people of Alloa are being invited to share their views on the town and help develop a community project.

With a non-religious agenda, the Church of Scotland is looking to start a new scheme and a 'Community Chat' event is going to be held next Thursday to help shape the initiative.

Community development co-ordinator Dave Crozier, who works with St Mungo's and Ludgate churches, is hosting the occasion over two sessions.

He said: “It's going to be really informal and it's going to be like the sessions I've run with groups already.

“We are trying to make it quite fun because it is open to all age groups as well.”

He added: “It's not a lesson, it's just something where they can sit with a coffee and participate as much as they want to, even if it is a few words here and there.”

With a positive attitude, Dave will be asking people what they think of the town, what works and what they could use more of. He emphasised it's not all about the negatives and what is lacking, perhaps there are already positive things happening that more people could benefit from.

Children are welcome too and they will get the chance to draw their answers if they feel like it.

The co-ordinator has always had an interest in community-based work and is very much looking forward to building a project up from the grassroots level. He is hoping to find out the needs and wants of locals to identify a project that could benefit many people.

It's all about co-production, he said, adding: “We are doing this together.”

He hopes to get to know the people behind the stories and explained he believes it is important people from all aspects of life work together to make things better, saying:“You have to be working together, if you do things based on stats, but without talking to people, things don't work.

“But if you just get people who are in the community, without looking at that [the numbers], things don't work either. You have to always be working together.”

Dave also hopes to hear how people would envisage the delivery of a programme and how it would be advertised, something he believes is often overlooked.

He added: “Different age groups might want it to be advertised in different ways, I use social media a lot, I use flyers a lot, but maybe we need to be reaching out to different places and again, it's all about getting that from, hopefully, the whole of Alloa.”

The 'Community Chat' will be held at Ludgate Church next Thursday, February 23, between 10am and 12noon as well as between 6pm and 8pm.

There will be tea, coffee, juice and snacks as well as a raffle with prizes.